An outline of English literature in the second half of the XXth century.

In the 50-s in English literature there appeared a literary movement – “angry young men”. The writers who are called angry young men don’t form any united artistic group. They don’t depend on each other but nevertheless there are common features in their works. Literature of the “angrys” is distinguished with a powerful emotional beam of the society and in the same time it is deprived of any positive program. Hopes for the essential changes in afterwar reality were replaced with disillusions and despair of angry young men whose lives proved to be dull and uninteresting, full of dissatisfaction and fear of nuclear war.

The “angry young people” literature reflects the spirits of a whole generation of the young. Their aimless existence caused anger and protest against the bourgious laws and morals.

In the novel of Kingsley Amis “Luky Jim” there formed the basic features of the “angry” prose: the main character is a young man, intelligent, whose adventures are shown in comic situations. Jim works at a provincial university. This teacher feels that he is needed by none, his work is interesting to nobody. This gave rise to his discontenet with everything who sees around. The university seems to be a cemetery to him, scholars seem to be monstrous. He can hardly control himself in the presence of the professor who caused disgust and so on.

A very important figure of the literature of the 2^nd half of the XXth century is Samuel Becket. He is very popular, famous at least fashionable. he was born in Ireland but has spent most of his adult life in France and has written many of his works in French before translating them into English as a young man. He was s friend of James Joyce and like him is fascinated by words; but unlike Joyce he sees language as building a wall between human beings which stops them communicating. His play “Waiting for Godot” is one of the most influential work in English written this century. It takes away the surface detail from the situations it presents and shows their real nature; in the words of one critic, “it describes the essence of the human condition”. The play shows two tramps, Vladimir and estragon, who are waiting for the arrival of the mysterious Godot to give their lives some purpose and direction. But Godot does not come, and may never exist. The play shows the pain and fear as well as the humour of the two men as they despairingly. Try to use reason and argument to help them in a situation. Reason is not enough. Of the two, Estragon is more determined that they should wait for Godot as they have been told to do:

Vladimir: What are you suggesting? That we’ve come to the wrong place.

Estragon: He should be there.

Vladimir: He didn’t say for sure he’d come.

Estragon: And if he doesn’t come?

Vladimir: We’ll come back tomorrow.

Estragon: And then the day after tomorrow.

Vladimir: Possibly.

Estragon: And so on.

Vladimir: The point is.

Estragon: Until he comes.

Vladimir: You’re merciless.

“Endgame” also shows characters in a closed situation which they continually fight against. As in “Waiting for Godot”, the surface details are cut to the bare essentials; it is set in no particular place, at no particular time, and the characters play games with words which they intend only to pass the time but which take on a meaning they ahd not thought of. “Krapp’s Last Tape” has only one character, an old sitting in a closed room with a tape recorder, playing the tapes he made at earlier points in his life and reflecting on the thoughts and impressions he had had as a younger man and the difference in his thoughts and feelings now. In “Happy Days” the main character is a woman, Winnie. The characters in Beckett’s earlier, plays were despairing and lost, fighting against the emptiness of their lives and their loss of hope: Winnie is resigned to her fate with a cheerfulness that is almost more frightening than their despair. The title of the play holds a bitter humour: she is determined to be happy, because she will not face the terrible things that are happening to he. Her defence is that she will not allow herself to care and for this reason, this has been described as Beckett’s most despairing play.

Beckett is interested in those characters who refuse not only love but any real relationship with anyone else; they are lost and unhappy, and have only the pleasure of language left. Beckett’s language is very carefully used, and there is much more humour in his play than the despair of the themes might suggest.

Samuel Beckett is a famous example of the twentieth century English drama, where we can see the individual’s search for identity in an unfriendly outside world, and the difficulty and fear of communicating with other individuals.

Edward Bondis less concerned the individual search for identity and more with the results of right and wrong that they have made for themselves. His plays are on a heroic scale, with the theme that the world is badly organized and must be changed. In his plays man’s self-destructiveness is often made clear in his violent actions.

“Narrow Road to Deep North” set in an ancient Japap, shows how a baby left to die becomes a cruel ruler , and asks whether the poet who saw the child and did nothing is responsible for all the pain and suffering that the ruler caused. The play also considers the effect of colonialism, both on those who rule and those who are ruled.

“Lear” is Bond’s account of Shakespeare’s tragedy “King Lear” in which Lear’s good daughter, Cordelia, is made evil and dishonest by achieving the power she set out to destroy. “Bingo” shows Shakespeare himself as an ill and dying man, returned to his home in the country after his success in London. there is a powerful comparison between Shakespeare the great artist and Shakespeare the man, who is a failure as a husband and a father and agrees to actions by the authorities that will harm ordinary peoples.

“The Fool” is also about the life of an English poet; it is based on the story of John Clare, a poet in the eighteenth century who was kept in prison as a madman for many years. The play explores the mysterious relationship between pain of the mind and heart, and true poetic vision. This is a theme also explored in “The Woman”, in which the main character gains new knowledge and understanding through great pain and suffering. Bond’s world is often a cruel and bitter one, although there are touches of humour; but many things that have happened in the XXth century are cruel and bitter, and Bond’s work like that of the other dramatists can be said to reflect the world in which we all live.